Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a method for controlling the image forming apparatus, and particularly relates to a technology which is suitable when being used when an error due to hard disk abnormality has occurred.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are some image forming apparatuses which are provided with a hard disk as a storage apparatus that holds the image data and application data of a user, and temporary data during processing therein. The hard disk abnormality includes physical abnormality such as a poor connection of a cable, and logical abnormality due to an off-track error in which a read-write position of the hard disk is shifted due to vibration, and to the unintentional shutdown of a power source during writing.
When having detected the abnormality of the hard disk, the image forming apparatus notifies an UI or a remote monitoring system of the error, and requests the dispatch of a serviceman. Then, the serviceman turns a power source on again, or formats a region (partition) of the hard disk, which is considered to have abnormality. The serviceman performs the replacement of the hard disk, as a countermeasure at the time when the above methods could not resolve the error. Here, the serviceman is a person who saves the image forming apparatus. Incidentally, the serviceman is a worker who is assumed to have a technical knowledge concerning the image forming apparatus in his charge, and solves a failure and the like when the failure has occurred.
In reality, the error is often an error which has been notified mainly because of the logical abnormality of the hard disk due to a malfunction of a software, such as an abnormality in the partition and the destruction of a file system. In this case, the dispatched serviceman can resolve the error only by turning the power source on again or formatting the partition. A technology of automatically performing the format when the image forming apparatus detected the abnormality is proposed as a method for resolving these logical abnormalities of the hard disk (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-33239).
On the other hand, also in the case of the physical abnormality of the hard disk, the hard disk is occasionally temporarily restored by the format of the partition, and the serviceman takes a countermeasure of: restoring the hard disk by formatting when having been firstly dispatched; and replacing the hard disk when having been notified of the error again.
However, when automatically formatting the partition without obtaining a consent of the user, the serviceman results in deleting the image data and application data of the user without permission from the user.
In addition, even though the error is caused by the physical abnormality of the hard disk, there is the case where the hard disk is temporarily restored by the format. For this reason, there is the case where the serviceman results in finishing the work without replacing the hard disk when having been dispatched firstly, and cannot appropriately take measures against the physical abnormality of the hard disk. In this case, there is such a problem that the hard disk results in operating in a state of having held the risk of losing the data of the user.